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Potts and Barnett Nail New Orleans

Andy Potts and Lauren Barnett were the class of the field at the Big Easy.

Andy Potts had some surprise company at the end of the bike while Lauren Barnett won in her 70.3 debut at IRONMAN 70.3 New Orleans.

Barnett Debuts in style

In her professional 70.3 debut, Lauren Barnett took the win in New Orleans after a close race that had eight women in contention starting the run. Haley Chura dominated the swim with a 24:12 split, but by the end of the bike there were a bunch of women including Chura, Barnett, Sarah Piampiono, Hallie Blunck and Laurel Wassner who were all in a position to run their way to the win. Wassner’s race-best 1:25:53 wasn’t enough to get her above fourth, though, as Barnett moved to the lead over Piampiono and cruised to a one-minute win. Blunck rounded out the podium. The top five women were all only three minutes apart.

Potts Powers through

Andy Potts, a former collegiate swim star and Olympic triathlete, is routinely the fastest swimmer in any race he enters and today was no different. Typically Potts continues to lead the way through the bike in his victories, but today he found himself in trailing by a few seconds into T2. Canadian Trevor Wurtele hammered through the bike to move to the lead after trailing by more than three minutes after the swim. Wurtele’s bike split might have been too much, though, as he faded on the run. Potts regained the lead and won in 3:50:38, while Ben Hoffman also got passed Wurtele to take second. Wurtele hung on for third.